Emma Czornobaj, left, leaves the courtroom at the Montreal courthouse with a supporter on Monday. Czornobaj has been charged with criminal negligence and dangerous driving causing two deaths when she stopped her car on a highway to avoid hitting ducks.

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MONTREAL — Martine Tessier was returning home from a weekend camping trip when she saw something no one ever expects on a busy highway.

Tessier, the first witness to testify in the trial of Emma Czornobaj, 25, said she was driving her truck — with a camper in tow — in the left-hand lane of Highway 30 in Candiac when she saw the accused on the left-hand side of the highway, bent over and motioning to some ducks.

“I shouted to my (three) children: ‘What is she doing there? She’s going to get killed,” Tessier said, adding that Czornobaj was standing on a portion of the highway not wide enough to be used as a shoulder. She figured Czornobaj had jumped over the highway divider to rescue the ducks but that assumption changed in a split second as her eyes returned to the road in front of her.

Czornobaj’s car was parked in the left-hand lane, just metres from where Tessier had first seen the woman with the ducks. In that moment, Tessier said, she noticed that the parked car did not have its hazards on and the driver’s door was open.

“I didn’t have the time to brake. I didn’t have the time to check if there were other cars (in the right-hand lane). I avoided a collision,” Tessier said of how she managed to swerve into the right-hand lane to avoid crashing into Czornobaj’s car.

As she looked back in her rear-view mirror, Tessier said, she could see the back end of Czornobaj’s car lift up in the air.

“I saw a body go over the car. It looked like a rag doll,” Tessier said. “I shouted to my daughter to call 911.”

What Tessier saw was the impact of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle striking the back of Czornobaj’s car. The Harley was being driven by André Roy, 50, and his 16-year-old daughter was riding on the back of the motorcycle. What Tessier saw was Jessie’s body being projected over the car. Both Roy and his daughter died after being taken to different hospitals afterward.

Czornobaj is accused of two counts each of criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing death. The trial is being heard by a jury at the Montreal courthouse.

According to Tessier’s testimony, drivers in the westbound section of the highway on the evening of the accident, June 27, 2010, had to deal with a setting sun that made visibility poor.

Roy and his wife, Pauline Volikakis, had used their motorcycles to pick up Jessie, their only child, at her place of work, a farmer’s market in La Prairie. Jessie was on the back of her father’s Harley-Davidson while they headed home on Highway 30. Volikakis, who had a learner’s permit, was following behind on another motorcycle.

Volikakis testified that, because of her inexperience, her husband was maintaining the speed she preferred to travel at — no more than 85 kilometres per hour.

Volikakis managed to testify in a matter-of-fact manner until Chassé asked her what happened just before the crash. Volikakis became emotional as she recalled her husband’s reaction to spotting Czornobaj on the left side of the highway.

“He gestured to her (with his left hand) like ‘What are you doing there?’ and then crashed into the car,” Volikakis told the jury. “Jessie did a 360 in the air and landed in between (Czornobaj’s) car and the highway divider.”

Volikakis said her husband died on the spot but managed to open his eyes one last time before closing them permanently. Her husband’s death was confirmed at the Charles LeMoyne Hospital and Jessie was taken to the Montreal Children’s Hospital where she later died. Volikakis had to identify both bodies.

When later questioned by the Sûreté du Québec at a police station, Czornobaj said she stopped her car and got out to help ducks in the left-hand lane of the highway. Her statement will be entered into evidence at some point during the trial.

Tuesday’s testimony was preceded by an opening statement from Annie-Claude Chassé, one of two prosecutors in the case.

“If you find Emma Czornobaj friendly or sympathetic you will have to set that aside,” Chassé said, asking the jury to consider only the evidence they hear.

Chassé said that listening to how witnesses reacted to seeing Czornobaj on the highway, bent over while trying to guide ducks to safety, would help the jurors understand the case.

“It will help you answer the question every one of you will have to answer at the end of the trial: Would a reasonable and prudent person in the same circumstances as the accused do the same? Would a reasonable and prudent person stop her car, in the left-hand lane on a busy highway in order to save some ducks?”